The present invention relates to a video recording apparatus which receives contents including viewing programs via broadcasting and a wide-area network and records the contents therein and a viewing program control method for use with the same.
For video recorders for family use, the recording capacity has become increasing greater by use of a Video Tape Recorder (VTR), a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), and a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). In a VTR and a DVD recorder (without an HDD), pictures can be successively recorded for about ten-odd hours and there does not exist a margin to record contents (programs) desired by the user. Therefore, the programs are recorded according to the indication from the user. However, in recently developed recorders with an HDD having a remarkably large recording capacity, more than several hundred to several thousand programs can be successively recorded. There are consequently proposed and/or developed various functions in which programs not likely to be desired or preferred by the user are also automatically recorded and the user thereafter selects desired ones therefrom.
The automatic video recording methods are classified into two types, i.e., a method of recording all programs for a predetermined period of time and a method of recording part of the programs for a predetermined period of time. In the first method, the user can playback any program after the broadcasting of the programs. However, a large number of tuners and a large volume of recording areas (such as an HDD) are required to record all programs therein. That is, the method of recording all programs is not efficient in consideration of the ratio of the programs actually played back by the user to all programs thus recorded. In the second method, only the programs to be likely viewed by the user are recorded and hence the recording areas and the tuners are efficiently used. Since programs likely to be viewed by the user are selected in this method, there has been proposed a method of automatically recording such programs on the basis of a history of programs viewed by the user (reference is to be made to JP-A-05-062283). According to the method, it is assumed that the contents actually viewed by the user are the contents which are likely to be desired by the user. Contents similar to those viewed by the user are recorded assuming that such contents are likely to be viewed by the user. Moreover, there has been proposed a method in which the user inputs information of his or her taste (degree of interest) such that contents related to the taste information are recorded as those to be likely viewed by the user (reference is to be made to JP-A-06-124309).
However, according to these methods, if there exists deviation in the learning algorithm of the video recording apparatus or in the initial setting conducted by the user, there possibly occurs a case in which only part of programs regarded as preferable for the user are recorded. To solve the problem, there has been proposed a method in which an objective criterion is introduced from an external device to the video recording apparatus to determine programs to be automatically recorded (reference is to be made to JP-A-2005-184289).